Truth is Singular
by Chibi Binasu-chan
Summary: The Doctor meets the lovely Clara in Victorian London as he mourns for the loss of the Ponds. Together they save the world and go on amazing adventures throughout time and space. Can Clara and the Doctor heal each other of the scars of loss without losing themselves? After all, there is only one Time Lord left, and there is only one Clara Oswald.
1. Prologue

_**Truth is Singular**_

_Lies are words, words, words._

**-Prologue-**

"The only force that could melt the snow, an entire family crying on Christmas Day," the regret in his voice echoed back from the window pane.

When they returned to the Latimer House, the family stood gathered around a body laid out on a table. Madame Vastra took in a deep hissing breath through her nostrils. This was not going to prove an easy task. She looked back at the Time Lord who stood frozen in the doorway of his time machine. The look on his face was one she had not seen in many a year. She raced after him when he stormed back into the Tardis.

"Doctor!" she called.

"No!" he growled, rearing back at her like a fierce beast protecting its young. "I will! Not! Lose her!" he stomped his way down the staircase to the underbelly of the Tardis console to begin digging through the various drawers and boxes of his strange collection of items.

Vastra's chest tightened, "This is not your fault, Doctor. There is nothing to be done. She is lost. Doing this will only cause more pain!" She wondered secretly if the Doctor would ever recover from his mourning with this fresh death on his conscience.

There was a maniacal look in his eyes as he came bounding back up the stairs with a gadget in hand. He turned a knob this way and that, played a little tune on the various buttons, and then looked back up at her. Vastra took a step back in shock.

The Doctor's eyes were bubbling with bright tears.

She got out of his way when he pushed past her and out of the Tardis once more. She knew there would be no stopping him from trying to save her.

The family barely glanced up from their tears. Jenny and Strax saw the madman striding toward them. Strax put up his large hands, "Sir. She has moments only.." The words died upon his lips.

The Time Lord was a glorious visage of fury. The red pulsating light in the room seemed to encase him in fire. There would be no argument against him, no enemy who could defeat him, and no friend who could persuade him otherwise. He took the medical machine from Strax and connected it to his own gadget.

Lights and sounds suddenly emitted like a colossal whirlwind from the combined machines. The Doctor focused it upon the body on the table. His eyes closed and his body began to quiver. Jenny and Strax could see an energy being transmitted from him, to the machine, and then to the girl they had wept over.

Something happened. Everything stood still for a moment. There was no sound or any movement in the room. Time seemed to stop.

And then came a huge _whoosh! _The girl took in a gasping breath. Her eyes fluttered wide open and she nearly jumped into a sitting position. At the same time, the Doctor collapsed.

Vastra and Strax leaped forward to catch him.

"Good God!" Captain Latimer exclaimed.

Jenny nearly sobbed, "Madame! Is he..?"

"No, my love, he is alive," Vastra smiled thinly. _Just barely, _she thought to herself. "That was an incredibly stupid thing to do." She looked down at the fried and sparking machine that now lay on the floor at the Doctor's feet. "Somehow.. I don't know how.. he used his own life energy to give the technology enough of a boost to revive Clara. Time Lords will never cease to amaze me." The red light was gone. The furious energy was gone. All that was left was a held in breath of anticipation.

Strax was quick to get back up and pull out another medical device from his pocket. He scanned the girl with a frown. He looked at Vastra and nodded. "She will live."

The children cried out and ran toward her. "Miss Montague! Miss Montague!" They grabbed her, hugged her, kissed her.

She seemed to be in a state of shock, and had not yet spoken. She looked from the children, to Captain Latimer and the maid, to Jenny and Strax, and then.. she looked down at the Doctor.

Vastra felt the Doctor stir in her arms. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief that only Jenny saw. Against all the odds, the Time Lord lifted his head and looked up at the woman he had nearly sacrificed it all to save.

Clara smiled, "Did you save the world?"

"Yes. We did," the Doctor's voice shook, but his face had softened into a small grin.

The girl's smile widened, "Well then. Where to first?"

* * *

_To be continued.._

* * *

**Author's Note: **I am a huge fan of Doctor Who, but I thought that series 7B had many enormous flaws to it, one of the biggest being the two-dimensional and poorly written modern Clara. I recently re-watched _The Snowmen _and thought about how awesome the Victorian Clara and her world really was. And so I thought it would be fun to go for it, and change everything.

**Major changes: **_Asylum of the Daleks _is changed to be a completely separate character, no longer tied to the character of Clara. Let's just ignore that story please, in order to completely erase the "Impossible Girl" story-arc. No souffle-girl comment. My story is going to only include the Victorian Clara as if she is the original and only Clara. So just try to imagine that in your head. **Also:** I will be rewriting many of series 7B stories in order to fit this new Clara story-arc, and to improve them in the ways I wish they could have been. I will be covering those series 7B episodes and throwing in my own original adventures for this Clara and the Doctor duo to go on that I had wished to see. Thank you for any support/reviews and for reading! I hope you enjoy.

**Rating: **T rated for violence, swearing, mature themes, sexual themes (lime, but no lemon).

**Genre: **Adventure/Action and Drama. Pairings: Eventual Clara/11, Jenny/Vastra, and some surprises. Additional genres, humor, romance, angst.

**Disclaimer: **Doctor Who is owned by the BBC, however, any original characters not seen in the show are owned by me.


	2. The Bells of Saint John (Part 1)

_**The Bells of Saint John**_

_Part One_

* * *

"What is the meaning of this? Miss Montague? You've miraculously escaped death before our very eyes! And now you and your… gentlemen friend, are just going to leave?"

Clara knew this would happen, but she smiled pleasantly, "Captain Latimer, you will thank me for it later. Spend Christmas with your children and I am sure you will have a lovely time! I have tucked them into bed, but they need you now more than they need me."

The captain's face was incredulous, "Miss Montague-"

"Ah ah," Clara waved her finger. "I am confident you can spend several days together without me. I do appreciate your understanding of extending my holiday," she picked up her bag and left him stuttering to respond. Down the hall and in the little study on the right was her future, and there was little doubt in her mind that there was magic awaiting her there. Anticipation was starting to build in the pit of her stomach.

The green lady stood in front of the Tardis with her wife. The two of them eyed Clara in a mysterious and slightly misgiving way. The green one, Clara recalled was named Madame Vastra, took a step in front of the blue doors, "Clara. Are you sure you feel well enough for a journey so soon? The Doctor and danger go hand in hand. You will never be truly safe once you pass through these doors."

Clara swallowed hard, and raised her chin, "Thank you for all your help, Madame." She gave a slight nod to the lady, and another to her brunette wife. The two seemed to understand this dismissal, and both slowly moved aside.

In front of her was the giant blue and white shining box that she had first seen atop a wondrous cloud. She noticed the little symbol that said "Saint John" above it on the door. Now that it was here in the small study room, something seemed different about it. Almost like it preferred to no longer be afloat in the sky, and rather liked being crammed into the corner of a room. Clara felt a smirk tug on her face.

She pushed the door open.

He was leaning against the center of the machine, stroking the long cylindrical tube in a nearly loving fashion. She closed the door behind her and could just barely hear the Doctor whispering what sounded like the words "thank you" over and over again. She giggled at the silly sight of the man whispering sweet nothings to his machine.

The Doctor looked up suddenly. The smile that spread across his face was beaming. Clara felt herself melt under its glow. As she walked closer to him she began to notice his tired eyes and gaunt face that looked as though he had been awake for weeks and had barely eaten a thing. She frowned, "Doctor, are you alright?"

"Asks the girl who cheated death! Are _you_ alright, Clara?" The Doctor bounced the question back to her and bopped her nose with his finger.

Clara didn't like his avoidance of her question, but decided to find out more later, "I'm great! I feel amazin' actually. But this bag is getting quite heavy for my arm.." she let it drop to the floor with a thud.

"Ah yes, the Tardis will make you a room for your things and sleep and other such boring nonsense," the Doctor turned and began to push all sorts of buttons on the machine panel.

"What is this called?" Clara had to ask. She wanted to know everything about this wonderful contraption.

The Doctor looked at her funny, "What, the Tardis? Didn't I explain that bit?"

"No, this!" she pointed to all the buttons and the cylindrical tube.

"Oh! That! That's the console! It's how I steer my ship so to speak. I control everything the ship does with these buttons." The Doctor's face had a quality of fondness for the machine so endearing Clara thought he might as well have been looking at a long lost loved one.

She pursed her lips and decided to study the thing anew. She walked around the console at least twice, aware that the Doctor watched her the entire time. There were frames of lit pictures with all sorts of words and coordinates on them. The buttons were so varied and numerous that it would be impossible to count them all. More than half of them didn't even look like buttons, but rather levers or pulleys or straps. There seemed to be multiple stations on the console as she walked around it. It didn't look like a ship that only one man could pilot. She glanced curiously at the Doctor.

He beat her to it, "So. Clara. Where do you want to go, eh? My ship can fly anywhere in the universe." His grin was addictive.

Clara stepped toward him, "Doctor. You're not human." It wasn't a question.

His grin fell just a bit, "No. I'm a Time Lord." He straightened out his bowtie.

"And where are Time Lords from?" they stood very close now, almost nose to nose. Clara could see every line of his face, every wrinkle and every scar. She looked deeper into his eyes than she had gotten the chance to before. She had only seen glimpses of it previously, but now she saw much more. The man in front of her was truly.. inhuman. A concept she had never considered before these strange events, and now here he was, a man from another planet, just inches away from her. There was something even more foreign about him than the green lady..

Clara felt her chest constrict. She tried to settle down the butterflies in her stomach. She could not allow the wonderful things that had happened no matter how insane to be of waste just because she was starting to feel overwhelmed by the reality of it. But she couldn't help but let the same thought run over in her head once more.

The man in front of her was an _alien_ from a far-away star.

The Doctor looked back at her just as deeply. He seemed to reach some kind of conclusion, for he finally answered her question, "The planet Gallifrey."

There was a rasp in his voice that told Clara not to question him further on this subject yet. But Clara wanted to know more about this man with the magical box. She decided she needed to investigate him further.

Once again, he beat her to it. "You haven't answered _my_ question yet."

Clara snapped out of her pondering, and saw that the Time Lord as she now knew he was called was looking eagerly at her. He seemed to have taken a step back though, as his breath was no longer warming her face. She smiled and held her hands behind her back in a pleading posture, "Anywhere in the universe? I think I'd like to see your home, Doctor."

"My home?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, darkly.

"You said you don't live on top of a cloud!" Clara pointed out. "So you must live somewhere."

"This is it!" the Doctor suddenly began to dance around. "The Tardis is my home!"

Clara laughed at his antics, "No! No! I mean, where in the universe do you go to the most? I live in London, Planet Earth." That felt rather strange to put it that way. "So where do you live, Doctor?"

He stopped his dancing and looked seriously at her for a moment. Then it was as if a light bulb had gone off in his head and he began to jump around the console, pulling levers and pushing buttons. The machine wheezed and made many sounds nearly like a steam engine but with some other strange noises Clara had never heard before. The circle on the ceiling began to spin. The Doctor was grinning like a madman. Clara just kept laughing. It was one of the most spectacular sensations she had ever experienced.

Suddenly everything stopped and they were thrown sprawled across the floor. As they laughed, the Doctor helped Clara up and they raced for the door. The Doctor pulled on her hand, "Are you ready, Clara?"

She imagined being on another planet. Some wild and seemingly uninhabitable planet with a different sky. She giggled, "More than ever, Doctor."

He winked, and pushed open the door. They stepped out into a bright world.

Clara gasped.

They were in a city. Humans in strange fitted clothing walked by them in a hurry. There were tall and thin buildings that went nearly into the sky. The sun was bright and it seemed to be summer time. Clara could feel the heat of it beating down on her face and rising back up from the ground. It was swelteringly hot!

Clara tried to block the sun with her hand to get a better view of the city. It all looked… vaguely familiar. She glanced up at the Doctor's sly grin. In the distance behind him she could see Big Ben. She didn't think her eyes could open so wide.

"Welcome, Clara, to my home. London, Planet Earth, in the year two thousand and thirteen. Just one hundred and twenty one years into your future. Not very far away either."

Clara blinked several times to stop a tear from falling. It was London. Her London. It even had the same smell! That wonderful smell of old cigarettes, beer, and just a little bit of salty fish. But it was so different at the same time. The ground was a hard grey surface, there were large machines that looked like horseless carriages absolutely everywhere, and there were so many people! Clara felt her lip quiver.

This was a future that she and the Doctor had saved. It seemed impossible the more she looked at it, as if she had stepped into another world altogether. But deep down she knew, the Doctor was telling the truth. This was London.

Suddenly she realized she could no longer feel the presence of the Doctor. She looked back into the Tardis. He was barreling toward her on a noisy machine of wheels. She nearly yelped as he screeched to a stop right in front of her. He had on a helmet and goggles, and somehow had even changed his suit into a less wintery purple jacket and dark slim trousers. "This is a motorbike! Get on!" He then looked her up and down. "You better take off those clothes."

Clara mockingly admonished him, "Doctor!"

"Straight down the hall and on the right, there's a closet!"

Pretending to pout at his avoidance of her flirtation, Clara did as he said and ran back into the Tardis to find the closet.

A few minutes later, Clara stepped out of the Tardis once more. The Doctor looked at her in shock. "That was quick!"

Clara grinned competitively and spoke in her posh governess voice, "When you live a double life of barmaid and governess, dear Doctor, you must be exceedingly skilled at removing petticoats. What do you think?" She twirled in her new outfit.

Deeming most of the clothing in the closet to be too fitted for ladies and far too uncomfortable, Clara had picked a short, black flowery dress, black stockings and black boots. She also put on a leather jacket that made her feel almost too masculine. Clara put her long curled hair up in a bun. She giggled at the strange feeling of wearing an outfit so light that it was nearly like a nightgown!

The Doctor's jaw dropped. He yanked the goggles off his face to squint at her.

Clara smirked. She took much pleasure in seeing him so affected.

Then he snapped the goggles back over his eyes and clipped his jaw shut. He threw her a helmet and goggles of her own. "Let's ride!"

They zoomed down the streets of a London Clara had never imagined. They drove over the London Bridge, around Westminster and Trafalgar Square. There were some old buildings she recognized peppered here and there, but almost everything else was different. Everywhere around her were lights and sounds and metal and people. There were huge pictures of women in hardly any clothing, large red machines with people sitting on top listening to a person shout. The noise of the city was almost deafening. Clara started to laugh at it all. And then she began to find it difficult to stop laughing. She was nearly hysterical as the Doctor pulled them over in front of a café.

"Clara, calm down. Breathe deep. Hey now, it's okay," he took her face into his hands. She wasn't sure what he was trying to do, but it did seem to help. The laughing died down until she realized she was hiccupping through tears.

She jumped into his arms and he held her tightly.

And then they pulled apart just as suddenly. The Doctor looked embarrassed, Clara only blushed with amusement.

The Time Lord led her into the café. He ordered them some drinks, and sat them down on a cozy couch in the corner. Clara took in a deep breath and looked around her. This wasn't too terribly different of an environment than she was used to. She smiled and took a sip of her cup, only to jerk back, "Doctor, what is this stuff?"

"The best cappuccino in town! 21st century humans love it so much you could drown the Earth in it! Well, not literally, but coffee is the most popular drink in the world, with about 400 billion cups consumed every year. You could swim in the amount of coffee humans drink. Here in Britain they spend about-"

"Doctor," Clara interrupted. "Why is 21st century London your home?"

The Time Lord looked at her with a smile, "You asked me where I go most often. Where I would consider to be my home.. is right here, in London. I've made many friends here." He turned his head to glance out the window. "I haven't been home in a long time."

Clara could feel the weight in his voice, "Did you lose someone?"

His head dropped a bit and those mysterious green eyes looked up at her, "I've lost many."

"But you keep comin' back," she told him with a little smile that he returned.

"Of course! This is the greatest time to be a human. There is always something going on! Here you are, standing on the cusp of a time," he showed her by standing his fingers on the edge of his cup. "When you reach out and adventure into space! Technology is advancing faster than ever before in human history, you swim in cappuccinos and _you beauty_!"

"What?" Clara frowned in confusion.

The Doctor had gotten up and brought back with him what looked like a slender mechanical book. He opened it up and grinned at her, "Clara! Someone left their laptop. Clara meet the internet, internet meet Clara!"

Clara touched the laptop to feel its smoothness, "And what exactly is the internet?"

"Here, here!" The Doctor pushed the laptop over to her. He seemed to be right in his element, "Imagine an enormous spider web covering the entire planet, except its nothing like an actual spider web, forget that. It's like the telephone or the telegram, but with an infinite amount of information constantly being sent everywhere and anywhere in the world. All you have to do is connect to it and you are instantly able to access anything you want! You move the mouse with this pad here, with your fingers like this, and then you connect to the internet over here on that little button."

Clara wasn't too sure what mice had to do with it, but she followed the Doctor's orders with a giggle. "This is amazin'!"

"Hold on, I'll go get the café internet password," the Doctor stood and walked away.

"Oh, is it secret information then? You have to have a password?" Clara watched him go and then looked back down at the laptop screen. She smiled mischievously as she pushed around on the pad with her finger. She clicked on the little white button on the bottom right and a list of words popped up. She frowned and looked closer at them. One didn't appear to be English. "That's a funny language.." she said to herself. She clicked on it, but nothing happened.

* * *

"I've got an interesting one. Computer isn't able to identify who she is.. but she's clever. Really clever," his dull eyes narrowed as he analyzed the data in front of him.

A woman in a dark business suit with short hair stepped up to overlook his screen. Her wrinkled face contorted into a sort of twisted smile, "Excellent. Activate a server nearest to her. The client will surely make good use of her."

The man's expression hardly changed, save for a slight grimace in one corner of his mouth, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. He nodded and began to type quickly on his keyboard, "Yes, Miss Kizlet."

"Thank you, Alexei," she turned from him and pulled out a tablet with a picture of the man at the top. "I'll keep you around for a while longer." She pushed a level called _Conscience _down to a lower amount.

* * *

"Can I take your cup?" a waitress suddenly appeared in front of her.

Clara smiled, "Thanks, yeah. I think I'm more of a tea person."

"More of a tea person?" the waitress asked.

"That's the last time I let the Doctor pick out a drink for me," she laughed. The waitress looked confused, and Clara explained, "That man I'm with, he's the Doctor. Well I'm not _with _him, we're just traveling together." She frowned, "I don't actually know him that well.."

"You don't know him that well?"

Clara sighed, "Not really. He's a mystery, like a puzzle to solve."

"Like a puzzle to solve."

Clara looked up at the weirdly monotone waitress, realizing that she kept mimicking what she said. She frowned and looked at her closely.

And then the waitress started to turn her head.

Clara gasped. The woman's head continued to turn all the way around until a strange silver mask was all that faced her. Clara could barely breathe.

She found herself looking out at her own collapsed body. Something was very wrong. Clara screamed, "Where am I?"

But there was no response. There seemed to be nothing at all.

"I don't know where I am! Doctor! Doctor! I don't know where I am!"

* * *

_To be continued.._


	3. The Bells of Saint John (Part 2)

**Author's Note: **Thanks for reading, reviews, favs, and follows!

* * *

"_I don't know where I am! Doctor! Doctor! I don't know where I am!"_

* * *

_Part Two_

The Doctor grinned happily as he walked back to the couch in the corner of the café with the password. He hadn't had to explain so much about modern London for such a long time. In a way he thought it was refreshing because it allowed him to see his "home" in a new light once again.

He came closer to where Clara was laying on the couch. A woman stood in front of her, facing him. He stopped and frowned. Something didn't look right here.

Clara's eyes were closed, and she didn't seem to be breathing. The Doctor realized the waitress standing in front of her had her head on backwards. "No! What!" he pulled his sonic out of his jacket pocket and pointed it at the bizarre and inhuman woman to get a reading.

Somehow she was draining all of Clara's energy.

"Walking wifi. Hoovering up people, eh? How does that work?"

He pressed a few buttons on the sonic to boost the power, and stepped forward to stand in between the woman and Clara. The back of the woman's head looked like a silver spoon. Inside he could see Clara's face. She was screaming, "Doctor! Doctor! I don't know where I am! I don't know where I am!"

"Hold on Clara! I've got you!" the Doctor tried to push down the panic that started rising in his chest. The image of the waitress before him suddenly disappeared, and all that stood there was a silver robot. The text on the spoonhead read _Downloading, 67%._ The Doctor's eyes narrowed, "Oh no you don't." He looked down at the coffee table where the laptop lay.

He grabbed the laptop and began to type vigorously. If he could just override the code sequence that connected the laptop's wifi to the wifi robot, he might be able to jump into the circuitry of what was connecting the robot to Clara. He typed as fast as he could. It was as though someone was fighting back against him.

"Oh no no no no.." he growled and pushed the laptop harder to override his enemy. He saw the word _Terminate _on the screen.

The robot's silver face released a blue light that put a spotlight onto Clara's face. Then it stopped.

He heard Clara gasp in air behind him on the couch. He raised the power on his sonic just another level up to turn off the robot. He grinned and set the robot down on the floor.

Quickly he turned around to check on Clara. She was breathing again but remained unconscious. He pushed the hair out of her face. "There now. You're back. You're okay," he kissed her forehead.

_What am I doing, _he thought to himself. He pulled back. This was not good at all. He was already so attached to her. Madame Vastra had been right, he had definitely taken an interest again. But this was going too fast. The Doctor let out a sigh and he messed with his bowtie. Clara wasn't just any other girl. She was special, his girl who cheated death.

Who died only because of him.

The Doctor pushed aside that dark thought.

He decided to dissect his new little robot friend.

* * *

"Well?" Kizlet asked.

"Our hacker sends a message."

_Under My Protection. _

The office screen on the wall was the only light in the room. "I assume he's talking about the girl," the man with thickly rimmed glasses stated blithely. His mouth was terse, "I don't know how he managed to terminate the download. We have a real problem on our hands. Should we inform the client?"

"Absolutely not," Kizlet barked. She raised an eyebrow, "We can deal with this little trouble-maker on our own, Mahler. Get Alexei. We have some creative problem solving to do."

Mahler left the room with a tight expression of anger.

Kizlet allowed an amused smirk onto her face. _You're too smart for your own good sometimes, Mahler, _she thought to herself. She got out her tablet and scrolled to Mahler's profile. She lowered his _IQ_ and _Conscience_ bars a few notches.

* * *

The Doctor set down a half-eaten jammy dodger on the plate and got back to work on his robot. Other people in the café didn't seem to mind and went about their business. He didn't think it would be good to move Clara, especially without her knowledge. She seemed fine where she rested on the couch. He put on his glasses and continued to attempt to reassemble the arm of the robot that he had taken apart, recording his work on the laptop.

It seemed that the robot was part of a hive mind, or server group that had only one function, to download human minds into its database. The Doctor frowned. Somehow the wifi was connecting people's minds to computers in a way he had not thought invented yet for this time period. There was a powerful mastermind behind this scheme, and whoever he was, the Doctor wanted to meet him.

"Doctor..?" he heard a small voice behind him.

He smiled and looked back at the girl on the couch. She looked sleepy and weak. "Have a jammy dodger, Clara, it should wake you up."

"What happened to me?" she asked.

The Doctor reached up to remove his circular glasses. "This little robot friend of mine tried to download you into its wifi network. There's something going on with the wifi that isn't supposed to happen. It seems to be harvesting human minds for something.. human souls trapped like flies in the world wide web.. Stuck forever, crying out for help."

Clara sat up fully on the couch with a pinched expression of disgust, "Isn't that basically Twitter?"

A shiver went down his spine. The Doctor slowly looked up at her, "If a computer can hack another computer, can a living sentient computer hack a person, and then rewrite them, edit them?" He was thinking aloud and so almost didn't catch the look of concern on Clara's face. He frowned at her, trying to examine her from where he sat to see if there were any other differences. She looked basically the same.

"Doctor, why would you say that? What's going on?" Clara's voice hitched.

"You just made a joke.. about Twitter," he pointed at her. "You're not supposed to know anything about it."

The girl's eyes nearly popped out of her head, "Ohh. How did I know that? There's.. those machines and other things inside my head I never knew before! Doctor, is this what normally happens when you bring people into the future?"

"No, no, that would be impossible!" the Doctor lunged forward and looked her in the eyes carefully. "Maybe when you were being downloaded into the wifi network, you brought back something extra. Like a basic desktop format, you were updated to contain the information it needed.. whatever it is.." He had a slow sinking feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, "Information which I very much doubt you will be allowed to keep.."

Clara was staring at him oddly.

The lights started to flicker somewhat. The Doctor glanced around and saw several other customers in the café begin to spin their heads backwards to reveal the silver spoon heads.

The Doctor jumped up and took Clara's hand. "Time to go," he told her. "Bring the laptop." They ran outside of the café and hopped onto the motorbike. The sun was starting to set.

"What are we going to do?" Clara shouted at him over the rev of the bike.

"Back to the Tardis! We need to come up with a battle plan!" the Doctor yelled over his shoulder.

Something started to tickle the back of his head. There was a nagging feeling that he was missing something big.

There was a large, low sound coming from overhead that filled the Doctor with dread. He glanced up from the road. Still far in the distance, a commercial airplane was starting to descend downwards. The Doctor's eyes widened.

_They would go that far to wipe us out? They have that much power? _he thought to himself.

He realized that he had not felt a fear so sharp in his gut for a long time. Countless lives were at stake and depending on his exact calculation.

The Doctor hit the gas hard and tried to ignore Clara's scream. Her arms were nearly squeezing the breath out of him. They were almost to the Tardis.

He clicked his fingers together to open up the Tardis doors as soon as they reached her. He rode the motorbike all the way inside and came to a quick stop. The Doctor nearly flew off the handles and began to do the mathematics of what it would take to get them exactly where they needed to be.

"What is going on? What are we doing? Doctor?"

Clara was asking him questions, and he could hear her, but he couldn't be distracted by anything if he was going to land them in such a precise location. He took in a deep breath, entered in the coordinates, and slammed the main lever down. He watched the Tardis begin to take off, and hoped. _Come on old girl, you can do it._

"Doctor, are you even listening to me? What is going on! I may be a woman but that does not mean I would not understand!" Clara was starting to boil over.

The Doctor put up his hands, "Clara, let me show you!" But now she was the one not listening to him and she continued to growl about being treated like an infant. His shoulders tensed, _We don't have time for this! _So he grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out the door, and tried not to feel pleased by her gasp of surprise.

He had landed the Tardis toward the rear of the airplane that was falling toward the center of London. All the passengers and crew of the plane were unconscious, somehow knocked out by the wifi on the plane. The Doctor ran down the aisle and toward the cockpit. He heard Clara struggling to follow him. The turbulence of the plane's fall made it nearly impossible to navigate even in a straight line.

They finally reached the cockpit and the Doctor pushed past the sleeping pilots to grab the wheel. The ground below them was starting to come up rather quickly.

"Bleedin' hell, Doctor! Where are we?" Clara screamed behind him.

"We're on an airplane Clara! And we're falling!"

"A what?!"

"A flying ship!"

Clara's anger was palpable, "And do you know how to steer this thing?"

"Nope!" the Doctor laughed then at the sheer insanity of the situations he found himself in. He pulled up on the wheel and together they cried out in the hope that he would succeed.

The nose of the plane started to pull back up, and miraculously, they avoided total catastrophe. The plane barely missed the tops of a few buildings before flying with the horizon once more.

The Doctor cautiously pulled out his sonic and pointed it up to disable the wifi in the plane. Slowly, the pilots began to wake up.

"Hello fellas, if you wouldn't mind, I'll let you take over from here," he handed the wheel back to the pilot and pulled Clara out of the cockpit with him and back to the Tardis. "Excuse us, pardon, us.." they had to slide by the waking passengers who were starting to demand to know what happened.

Clara had a few choice words to say to him when they landed safely on solid ground within the Tardis, "You enjoy scaring me to death, don't you. I'm not stupid, Doctor, but sometimes you need to tell me what is going on or else I'm totally in the dark!"

"You're able to follow my plans, and you know it," he responded with amusement. "You proved as much with the ice lady."

"This is different! This is basically a whole new world for me that I know nothing about!"

The Doctor scoffed, "You keep up with me alright as far as I can tell, Clara. Is it that you're getting chicken?"

"Chicken?!"

"Cowardly. You're too scared for the big stuff, eh?" he questioned her. If she couldn't handle it, then so be it.

The Victorian girl looked outraged, "_You_ asked _me_ to go with you!"

"You followed me when I told you not to!" the Doctor rebutted.

"And you gave in!" Clara took a few steps toward him. She looked like she was shaking with frustration, "You're the one who gave in and gave me a key to your ship. You know I'm not a coward, how dare you say that? I can follow you most of the time. Men are not that difficult to read." She stood closer to him, closer than he preferred. "But you are no ordinary man, Doctor."

He could see a slight blush on her cheeks. She was now close enough to catch her scent of a flowery perfume. Somehow she kept managing to break his personal bubble, the Doctor realized. He would need to put an end to all of this closeness with her. He looked down at her mousy features and couldn't help but think how lovely she looked in modernized clothing, and how adorable she was when she was angry..

The Doctor nearly shook his head in disbelief. He was truly getting too old for this.

"You're right, Clara. Forgive me," he lowered his head in regret. "You are no ordinary girl, but you're right. I didn't want to rush things and scare you off, but that plane could have blown us all to the moon. That's how powerful our enemy is, whoever he is. I saw it falling down and I .. I guess I panicked."

The girl in front of him was quiet for a moment. "London _is _your home, isn't it. You love it almost as much as you love this blue box."

He smiled at that, and then opened his mouth to respond, but found his throat was too constricted. He swallowed hard, and resorted to simply straightening out his bowtie.

Then she asked, "Where are we?"

"I've brought us somewhere special. As a gift for you," he smiled sheepishly.

A light came back on in Clara's eyes, "Really?" She let out one of her little giggles that the Doctor was starting to become rather fond of. He watched her bounce over to the Tardis doors, and nodded when she looked back at him questioningly. She stepped outside.

The Doctor followed with a chuckle. He supposed he'd better get used to this sweet and fiery girl.

* * *

"How can they have disappeared for the entire night without a trace!" Mahler exclaimed.

Kizlet viewed him with disdain, "There is obviously somewhere that you clowns haven't looked. Keep searching!"

"CCTV does not cover London 100% Miss Kizlet," Alexei pointed out.

Kizlet looked at her two drones carefully. While under her absolute control, they were still only men, not robots. They had all been up the whole night, chugging coffee and energy drinks, attempting to search for the mysterious man and girl with the motorbike. Their plan of taking them out with an airplane would have been successful, but costly, if it had worked. Part of Kizlet was glad that it had failed. A man of immense intelligence enough to thwart her would be an interesting one to catch rather than to kill.

After all, her little drones could only be pushed to a certain point. Ultimately they were still limited by their little minds. She would need someone of incredible brain power to help her with her plans.

She raised the _IQ _bar on both Alexei's and Mahler's profiles.

Within a few minutes, Alexei cried out, "I've got them! I've got them, Miss Kizlet! But no motorbike this time. They're with.. a blue police box!"

Kizlet's eyes widened. _Could it be.. him? The one the client warned of? _She could hardly believe her luck. She leaned close to Alexei. "Is the blue box connected to wifi?"

His dull eyes almost had a glimmer of excitement as he smiled like a Cheshire cat.

* * *

They were in a little alley. In front of them was a restaurant called _The Rose and Crown_. The morning sun was starting to rise.

Clara's face broke into an extraordinary smile, "Oh Doctor!" And then she jumped into his arms.

"You like it, then?" he asked. "Your old work is still here, one of the oldest bars in London."

Clara pulled back from him for a moment, "This is where we first met, Doctor! This very spot in the alley is where than snowmen grew out of nowhere."

He smiled, "And the rest is history." He winked, and she giggled at his terrible pun. "I'm forgiven then?"

She rolled her eyes, "Doctor, it would be impossible to stay truly mad at you."

"Speak for yourself," he half-joked, but Clara didn't react if she understood his meaning. He smiled ruefully. "Well, we've got a mystery on our hands. We need to find whoever thinks crashing a plane into central London or harvesting living human minds from their bodies sound like good ideas."

"Time for some Holmes and Watson action!" Clara grinned.

He scratched at his chin with glee, "I've always wanted to be the Great Detective."

"I'm clearly Holmes, Doctor."

The Doctor frowned in mock offense, "So I'm _Watson_?"

_Riiiiiing! Riiiiiiing! _

_Riiiiiing! Riiiiiing!_

The two of them stopped short. The Doctor felt a chill as he turned to look behind him at the Tardis.

The phone of the outer compartment of the Tardis was ringing.

_Riiiiiing! Riiiiing!_

_Riiiiiing! Riiiiing!_

_Riiiiing! Riiiiiing!_

* * *

_To be continued.._


	4. The Bells of Saint John (Part 3)

**Author's Note: **Here is the final part to the _Bells of Saint John_. This one is a bit longer than usual! Thanks for reading, please review/follow!

_Part Three_

_Riiiiiing! Riiiiing!_

_Riiiiiing! Riiiiing!_

_Riiiiing! Riiiiiing!_

"Aren't you going to answer it?" Clara was confused. She wasn't sure why the Doctor would look so intimidated by his own phone ringing. She hadn't really realized it was a phone until this moment, but then she supposed it made some sense. Police Public Call Box. Must have a telephone set up. But the Doctor looked almost frightened by it. "Doctor?"

He made a disgruntled noise, staring at the Tardis. "But.." he said, finally. "It's not supposed to ring, the outside isn't actually a phone. I have a separate phone on the inside of the Tardis, but this outer one is a fake, a dummy! It's doesn't actually work."

Riiiiing! Riiiiiing!

Riiiiiing! Riiiiing!

"Pick it up, Doctor, it's terribly loud!" Clara put her hands over her ears and ignored the Doctor's pithy expression thrown in her direction.

She watched him open up the compartment on the left door that revealed the ringing telephone. He gave a shrug and scratched his head noisily, "Geronimo." He put the phone to his ear, "Ello?"

The Doctor's expression appeared to Clara to suddenly go blank. His shoulders slumped, and his eyes seemed to lose their usual mischievous gleam.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked. Perhaps this was bad news on the telephone, perhaps the Doctor was upset by something?

He slammed the telephone back onto its handle. Clara nearly jumped at the sound. She blinked a few times.

"Doctor?" she queried again. She reached out to pat his arm, but he didn't react. He still had not said anything since picking up the phone. Clara started to get the sneaky suspicion of foul play. Something was very wrong indeed. "Are you alright?"

"Alright?" the Doctor repeated.

Clara's eyes went wide. She wasn't sure what was going on anymore. He was standing there rigid like a stone statue, with hardly any expression on his face, and no response to Clara's touch. It gave Clara an extremely uneasy feeling.

"Of course I'm alright!" the Doctor suddenly announced, turning to her with a grin. "I'm the King of Alright! No.. no.. forget that. That's a terrible title. Rory the Roman, that's a great title!"

Clara had to laugh a little, "Rory doesn't sound very Roman to me."

The Doctor put his hand on her shoulder with a fierce grip, that same grin on his face becoming almost eerie, "Don't you worry, my dear Mr. Holmes. We'll solve this mystery together." He pulled back, the bizarre grin never leaving his face. But Clara looked at his eyes and felt a chill roll down her spine. His normally full of emotion and history and starlight eyes.. were now dull, as if almost all the color had been removed, lifeless and cold. "I've just had a great idea," he pointed at her. "The laptop!"

Then he ran back inside of the Tardis without another word.

* * *

"We've got him, Miss Kizlet," Alexei told her triumphantly.

She moved in close to see his screen, "Job well done, Alexei. Now, you should probably take a breather." Kizlet pulled out the tablet and lowered Alexei and Mahler's _IQ _down by over half. The two of them appeared very tired, and nodded at her order. Kizlet looked out over the rest of her drones, who were sitting at their own desks, busily typing away, setting up servers and downloads across the world. She smiled to herself and looked back down at her tablet. "Now I've got him."

On the tablet was a picture of the Doctor. She pushed up his _Obedience _and _IQ _levels.

"Come home, my Doctor," she whispered.

* * *

Clara struggled to keep her bearings. There was clearly something wrong with the Doctor, as if he had been possessed by a demon. His wits no longer seemed about him.. at least, more than usual. She wasn't completely sure, but she thought it would probably be best not to let him know of any problem. A madman could be a dangerous thing. Clara followed him inside the Tardis and tried to keep a light smile on her face.

"The wifi robots likely have a power source or a home base from which they all come from. That home base has got to be written into their code or else they wouldn't know where to return to for repairs or maintenance. So.. you beauty," the Doctor was typing crazily fast on the laptop, sitting on the floor of the Tardis, looking through all the data he had collected on the robots. "Where does mummy live, eh?"

Clara raised an eyebrow, "And that home base will lead us back to whoever it is controlling those things?"

Vacant green eyes barely glanced up at her, "Correctamundo! A word I should really use more often." There was something especially strained in his voice that made Clara narrow her eyes in contemplation. Then he sat back suddenly, "Gotcha."

"Where are they?" she asked him cautiously.

"On the 65th floor of a great big building all the way on the other side of town," the Doctor smiled humorlessly. "We can fly the Tardis there." He moved to enter in the coordinates to the console.

"Wait!" Clara cried out suddenly.

The Doctor stopped and looked at her with confusion clearly written on his face.

Clara gulped. She knew that the Doctor was not himself, and that flying his ship straight into the enemy's lair could be an enormous trap. They couldn't afford to lose this blue box. Whatever it was that was wrong with the Doctor, Clara was determined to snap him out of it, and to protect him in the meantime.

"It's just.." she pulled a little on her black dress. "I'd much rather take the motorbike with you. If you don't mind. Flying in this old thing is just.. so boring.. compared to an amazin' ride on the motorbike with you.." Clara patted the seat of the bike. "You should show me how to drive it, Doctor! Please?"

The Doctor stared blankly at her. After another shaky heartbeat rattling Clara's chest, hoping without hope that he would buy it, he stepped away from the console. "Sounds a bit _domestic_ to me," there was that strain in his voice again. He shrugged. "Whatever you like!" He jumped on the bike and started it up. "See here, if you pull on this handle slowly and the other handle at the same time, you control your speed and the clutch! Quite simple really."

"Can I have a go?" she asked.

He shook his head, "Clara we've got to go! We've got to get there as quickly as possible!" It was almost as if he was reciting instructions.

Not knowing what else to do, Clara hopped onto the back of the seat.

She held onto him as he drove them out of the Tardis and down the busy streets of her future London, feeling as though she were touching a complete stranger. To a certain extent, the Doctor w_as _a complete stranger. But then, Clara knew they had a special bond. At least.. she hoped they did.

They drove down the twisted and turning streets. Everywhere they went, Clara noticed people holding little gadgets and mechanical books. People were watching moving picture screens as they walked down the street, as they drove, as they talked to each other, and as they ate. Some people even had little mechanical things inside their ears, on their faces, and around their wrists or waists. Clara watched them as they seemed to walk around in their own little bubbles as the Doctor drove them ever closer to an immensely tall building.

Clara felt a sinking in her chest. Even the Doctor was constantly attached to some sort of mechanical thing, whether it be a robot, or his ship, or his little screwdriver gadget.

On the streets, Clara could see the silver head robots downloading unsuspecting people, but no one around seemed to notice.. or care. And right in front of her sat the man who brought her to see this bizarre future, who was currently being controlled by the very technology he had so highly praised.

Clara closed her eyes and wished for home.

"The Shard!" the Doctor stopped in front of the building that seemed to go up to the very sky itself. He parked the bike on the sidewalk, taking no heed of the pedestrians around who looked curiously at them. The Doctor threw his leg over the bike and stood looking up at the building.

Clara remained sitting. She peered over at the front of the bike where she saw "ANTI-GRAV" emblazoned above a large red button. She frowned curiously at what that could possibly mean.

Suddenly she realized that everything had become a little too quiet. Several dozen people were standing still all around her, and they were all staring at her.

"Oh I love humans," the Doctor was grinning maniacally but that rasp in his voice was starting to make sense to Clara. It was almost like the Doctor's real voice was fighting to get out. "You're always trying to find patterns in things that aren't really there." Then his voice lowered menacingly, "I hope you appreciate the gravity of the situation, Clara."

Heads were turning everywhere and Clara quickly found herself surrounded by spoonheads.

Blue light was starting to emit from each silver mask.

"Begin download."

_The gravity of the situation._

Clara scooted forward on the bike and reached for the handles. She was either insane or about to die, and she would rather go out fighting. It's what the Doctor would do.

"This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done!" she screamed and started up the bike with a loud sputter. She managed to maneuver through the crowd of spoonheads, knocking several over, and as she came to the building's side, she slammed on the big red button and the hit the gas. "Anti-_gravity_!" and then she was almost flying up the side of the building. She didn't dare look back down.

The glass of the building had lines across it for each floor. Clara counted the floors as she went. It felt like ages before she finally reached the 65th floor. Once there, Clara brought the bike to a stop.

"What do I do now?!" she was sitting sideways 65 stories high.

Clara had no idea what happened, but she was suddenly crashing into the office. Glass fragments were all around her as she found herself and the bike strewn upon the office floor. Her world was going around in circles for a few moments.

Still a bit dizzy, Clara blinked her eyes furiously to try and look around the office. There was a main chair and desk with multiple strange little statues on it. On the walls of the entire room were thousands of little pictures.

Clara realized that each picture was of a person's face.. and they were moving! All of the people who had been downloaded were here, trapped inside a massive computer, crying out to her for help. Men, women and children, of every race and creed and origin were there, banging on their little screen cage with their hands. They were silent, but Clara could see their mouths opening like they were screaming, begging her to let them out.

"Well, well. I see you found my office. Sorry about the mess."

Clara looked up to see a woman in a dark business suit clicking her tongue at her. "And you are?" she asked, trying to pull herself together and look intimidating. She stood up and ignored the small cuts scattered up her legs.

"Miss Kizlet, at your service," the woman had a sly smile.

"I.." Clara nearly faltered. "I demand that you put the Doctor back to his rightful self! And all of these people! Return them to their bodies!"

Kizlet laughed with a snort, "Was that your plan then? I don't know how you rode the motorbike up here, but now that you're here.. you _demand _that I do what, my dear?" She took a few steps toward Clara in a slow and predatory way. "Sadly, many of these people have no living body to return to. They're much safer here, where they can live forever in the datacloud," she smiled less than sweetly. "Unfortunately for you, your Doctor is under my control. Isn't that right, Doctor?"

The Doctor stepped out of an elevator in the hall and stood still as a statue in the doorway. Clara wanted to cry at the sight of his still dulled eyes.

She tried to keep fighting, "Why do you need the Doctor? Part of your evil scheme to download living minds?"

The woman was circling her now, "My client must feed on living minds in order to gain their intelligence. I give him ample supply of livestock, and in return he gives me power. The power to control.. to manipulate. To possess." Now she was standing close to the Doctor.

Clara felt her blood boil at the sight.

Kizlet smirked, "And now I possess the greatest mind in the universe. The Doctor's."

Clara frowned, keeping an eye on the Doctor's unchanging expression, "But.. if your client feeds on intelligence, why not feed him the Doctor's?"

"My client can have as many minds as he can handle. But this one," she stroked the Doctor's arm. "He can't have this one. I will keep him for myself, and together we will have dominion over all the stupid, mindless herd of the human world."

"No!" Clara shook her head. She was on the verge of tears, and didn't see much point in holding out on them any longer. Everything had gone wrong, and it didn't appear she'd be able to save the Doctor.. or herself. "This world.. it isn't perfect, most certainly. I have seen that. But ultimately, humans are still humans! Still people! Still trying and failing and then succeeding, and hoping and wishing and loving.." she gave the Doctor a pleading look, and for a moment saw a tiny flicker of emotion. "What you're doing is murder. It's wrong!"

Kizlet laughed, and Clara saw her pull out a small mechanical screen from her jacket. She swiped her fingers across it almost lovingly. "This is my favorite little toy. It allows me to change the settings on all my drones," she looked up at her. "What is your name, girl? So that I know how to label you in my collection."

Tears were flowing down her face, but she managed to keep an expression of determination. She would not be defeated. Not really. "I am Clara Oswald."

Something sparked within the Doctor's eyes. And then, faster than she could keep track of, the Doctor was standing several feet away, holding Kizlet's tablet in hand. He smiled at Clara, and she felt her tears dry at the sight of his ancient green eyes that were full of life once more. "Ohhh yes.. we've got some cowboys in here, eh?" he chuckled as he rummaged through the tablet's information.

"What are you doing?! Give that back!" Kizlet cried out. She tried to jump forward at the Doctor, but suddenly she was held back by two men.

Clara watched in fascination and confusion, wide-eyed. The Doctor seemed to be enjoying himself, playing with Kizlet's tablet.

"Alexei! Mahler! What is happening here? Let go of me! I order you to let me go!" the woman kept trying to fight out of their grip. Their dull eyes never wavered as they held her.

"Funny thing about mind control," the Doctor drawled. "There always seems to be a great big button involved. And you should never let anyone other than yourself take hold.. of that great big button." He pushed on the tablet, a deep unspoken regret on his brow. "I release you from a living hell. Sleep now.."

One by one, all of the images of faces all around them on the walls began to disappear. Clara felt her heart lighten and contract at the same time. These unfortunate souls had been victimized and trapped by their own technology, and now they were free, but so many of them would not be returning to the world of the living. They had been unable to save them.

"And now to make a quick call to some of my friends," the Doctor was tapping away noisily on the tablet. "I'll just send them a little email, shall I? They'll be sure to get rid of all those friendly silver spoon heads."

"So you do have help here, who is it?" Clara asked.

The Doctor grinned at her, "Some buddies of mine called U.N.I.T. will get the job done."

Kizlet ripped free of the two men with a growl. They all looked at her carefully.

"No point in fighting it now, Miss Kizlet. It's over," the Doctor's voice had lowered in pitch to a low grumble that made the hairs on the back of Clara's neck stand up. "Your little game here is over. Did you really think you could control me? Did you really think you could beat me? Were you so power-hungry that you thought you were unstoppable?" The Doctor's eyes were nearly on fire with rage. "Not on my watch. Not ever."

And then Kizlet was running desperately out the door and down a hallway.

"She'll escape!" Clara cried.

The Doctor's expression was grim but he made no move to follow the woman, "No. She was not the mastermind here."

* * *

"I have failed you, Great Intelligence. I have failed," Kizlet stood stock still in front of a large screen in a small office room she had kept cordoned off from the others.

The face of a man appeared on the screen, "Miss Kizlet. You allowed the Doctor to control you."

"No, I have always been under your control, Great Intelligence," she shook her head, afraid.

Dr. Simeon's eyes narrowed, "You let him seduce you with his power and you were defeated by that same power. He is not only one man, but many within one, and always by his side is a friend whose energy he feeds upon for strength. I warned you, but you did not inform me of his meddling. That was your downfall."

Kizlet looked down in shame.

"I have feasted on many minds and I have grown stronger. I no longer need you, and I will search for power elsewhere. Goodbye, Miss Kizlet."

She swallowed hard, "You've been whispering in my ear for so long.. I don't really know what I was before. Goodbye." She then pressed a number of buttons on the screen, and watched as the man's face disappeared. She took in a shaky breath, and pressed the RESET button.

* * *

Clara and the Doctor watched in shock as the two men suddenly fell to their knees in pain, clawing at their ears. They were breathing hard, and then finally looked up at them.

"Where am I?" asked one. "What's going on here?"

The Doctor nodded, "It's as I thought. She reset them all to before they were taken over."

"But you were able to fight it, weren't you Doctor? You snapped out of the mind control." Clara smiled at him, but it then fell from her face when she saw the Doctor's sad expression. "Doctor?"

His shoulders were slumped, "I was barely able to fight it. I wasn't able to save you from the spoon heads, and I wasn't able to save so many of those who were killed by the datacloud. Even when I was able to help, I got you hurt." He pointed to her legs.

Clara looked down at the various cuts on her legs that had finally stopped bleeding, "That was you? You broke the glass? But how?"

He pulled out the screwdriver from his jacket, "I sonic-ed it. Sonic waves are able to break glass at a high enough frequency."

"You were still possessed and you helped me?" Clara smiled.

The Doctor let out a little sigh, "Clara, you rode a motorbike for the first time in your life up the side of a skyscraper." And then his grin was beaming, "How could I not be inspired?"

They fell together for a hug. Clara felt warm and safe there within his arms. She felt a blush creep onto her face, but she knew that everything was going to be alright.

"Clara _Oswald_! That is your name!" the Doctor was chuckling and Clara could feel his chest bounce against her. "You were amazing."

"I wasn't able to do much," Clara pulled away from him but she was still smiling.

"You did everything!" he pointed at her. Then he looked at her fairly seriously, "I wouldn't have gotten free without you. You saved me, Clara Oswald. You brought me back to the land of the living."

Suddenly dozens of men and women in black soldier uniform came through the door. They began to question the two men and everybody else in the offices around. One walked up to the Doctor and saluted, "Doctor, sir, we'll take everything from here."

The Doctor saluted back with a grin. He took Clara's hand and they began to walk out.

Officers were walking with Kizlet toward them from down the hall. Her face looked terrified, and in a small voice, she kept saying, "Where are my mummy and daddy? Where is my mummy?"

Clara watched her be taken away and felt a pang of pity. "She was being controlled, too, wasn't she Doctor?"

He didn't respond, he only pursed his lips and kept walking.

* * *

They were back in the Tardis when Clara felt herself finally unwind from all the events of the day. She had bandaged up her legs and gotten into another future London dress she found in the closet. It was still rather modest like her old dresses, but she preferred the lightness of the material and lack of a bustle to deal with. The Doctor had pointed her down a hallway and told her to open the third door on the left.

When she entered the room, she realized it was her bedroom that the Doctor and the Tardis had made especially for her. The style of the furniture inside was that of her time, 19th century England. It was plush and with lovely colors of blue and green, her favorite colors. The bed had soft white lace linen. She jumped onto it with a giggle and rolled around it.

Clara looked up to make sure the Doctor wasn't standing in the doorway watching her with amusement. He wasn't there.

Somehow she felt disappointed.

She walked back down the hallway and into the console room. The Doctor stood there, messing around with the different levers and buttons of his ship.

"I found my bedroom," she told him.

He smiled, "You like it? Your bedroom is your private place here on the Tardis, Clara. I will never go into your bedroom. It is your sanctuary." He straightened out his bowtie.

Clara gave him a cheeky smile, "At least, never uninvited."

The Doctor coughed a bit and smoothed out his jacket, "That is what I meant.." He appeared to ignore her flirtatious laugh, but looked at her with an endearing expression that made her feel somehow warm. "Your first trip in the Tardis. Was it what you thought it would be?"

Clara stifled her giggles and considered him seriously. "Not exactly. The future is.. not everything I thought it would be. In many ways, it is far more terrible than I could have imagined." She watched his concerned expression carefully as she spoke. "But at the same time, it is more wonderful and amazin' than I could have dreamed of."

His grin grew slowly on his face, "On to the next?"

She nodded quickly with a giggle.

"Anywhere in time and space, right outside those doors. Where do you want to go?" he asked.

Clara put her hands on her hips, "I want to go.. somewhere awesome."

* * *

_To be continued.._


End file.
